Caught Under the Mistletoe
by prongles
Summary: James and Sirius plan a Christmas prank. Only it doesn't go the way they expected. One-shot.


James Potter was sitting upside down on the squashy armchair in the Gryffindor common room as Remus Lupin sat upright catching up on the homework he'd missed due to the full moon the week before. Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew were sat by the fire playing wizard's chess where Sirius was spectacularly beating Peter.

"Prongs, all the blood will rush to your head if you keep sitting like that," Remus said, not looking away from the textbook he was reading. He chewed on his quill and frowned, looking back at his own parchment.

"I'll be fine," James replied boredly, "but you shouldn't chew quills. It'll ruin your teeth."

"My teeth are fine," Remus responded shortly. James grinned and then pulled the Snitch out of his pocket, letting it go and catching it at the very last second.

"YES! I got your queen!" Peter roared, taking the few people in the common room by surprise. It was Christmas break and the Marauders had decided to stay at Hogwarts for the holiday season. Only a select handful stayed behind this year. The looming prospect of Lord Voldemort frightened families into spending as much time together as possible.

Sirius chuckled. "Yes you did, but now I've checkmated your king." Peter deflated as the black knight attacked the white king. The two packed up the chess board and repaired the pieces and stared at James, waiting for him to say something as he generally was never this quiet.

"What?" James said, noticing his friends staring at him. He caught the snitch again and put it in his pocket.

"You're never this quiet," Sirius said, "what are you planning?"

"Not planning," James replied, "thinking."

"Blasphemy," Remus muttered with a grin, his quill still sticking out of his mouth. James flipped him off.

Sirius grinned and stretched out, looking like a dog waiting for its belly to be rubbed. "We should do a Christmas themed prank, though. We haven't done anything in a while."

"Yeah, because the last time we did a prank we ended up in detention for a month," Remus reminded Sirius. "I nearly got my badge taken away!"

Sirius laughed, recalling their 'back-to-school' prank. It included many Slytherins being chased by their textbooks.

Peter said, "We could easily do something with mistletoe."

Sirius shrugged but James' eyes lightened up. "We could! And I could not so sneakily trick Evans into kissing me for once!"

"I thought you said you didn't fancy her anymore?" Remus asked, smirking as Sirius rolled his eyes.

"I don't!" James protested. "But come on, who wouldn't want to kiss Evans?"

"Me," a voice said from the portrait hole. James sat upright and suddenly got very dizzy. When his eyes focused he saw Mary MacDonald standing there with her arms folded and a very amused grin on her face.

"MacDonald," Sirius said with a nod.

"Black," she replied coldly. She still hadn't forgiven him for turning her hair a horrid green in Transfiguration earlier that month. She turned to James, whom she much preferred, "What are you idjits planning with Lily?"

"Oh not just with Lily," James explained in a hurry, "we were talking about doing something with mistletoe."

"Ah, okay," Mary said, uncrossing her arms, "just leave us out of it, okay?" James nodded and she bade them goodnight before walking up to her own dormitory.

"We have to do something with them now," Sirius said, casting James a wicked grin.

"She _just_ said that she didn't—" Remus said exasperatedly but James cut him off.

"Of course. But what?" James said, crawling to sit next to Sirius and start plotting. Remus sighed and continued his homework as Peter grabbed the Map.

The three boys plotted for a long time unaware that Lily Evans was sitting on the stairs listening in and planning her own small prank.

* * *

"So we need to place mistletoe in the _exact_ spot, okay?" James said seriously, looking at Sirius, Peter and an annoyed Remus. He'd been dragged into yet another prank and was hoping he'd still be able to keep his badge.

"We know," Sirius drawled. "Let's just go, okay?" James nodded and then they all dispersed out to their exact locations to hang the mistletoe up.

* * *

"Alright, so we know that Potter is going to hang his by the Barnabus the Barmy Tapestry, and Black will hang his near the map of Argyllshire," Lily said, looking down at their notes.

Mary nodded. "Yup, and Remus and Peter's positions aren't that important in this plan because they're not the ones trying to kiss us."

Lily laughed, tucking a strand of red hair behind her ear. "True, but we need to remember where they put them so we don't accidentally get stuck or something."

"Ah yes, we wouldn't want to be stuck with Snape," Mary said, laughing as Lily grimaced.

"That's right," she said, thinking of her old best friend. She was glad she cut all ties from him now that he'd shown his true colours. She didn't need people like that in her life.

Mary and Lily memorised the exact locations where the infamous Marauders put the bloody mistletoe plants. They each put four up in the locations that Lily had overheard and with the help of the others. "Ready?" Mary asked Lily, grinning slightly.

"Of course," Lily said, packing their notes up and stuffing it in her bag. "Let's go."

The two witches walked out the common room and then went separate ways. Lily to find James and Mary to find Sirius. Lily kept a close eye out for any 'surprise' mistletoe because she really did not want to get stuck.

She noticed two Ravenclaws getting stuck and struggling, looking extremely confused so she cried out, "It's mistletoe! Just kiss!"

"Thank you!" the boy Ravenclaw said. He grabbed the girl Ravenclaw's face and gave her a kiss and then they walked away hand in hand. Lily supposed it was a good thing that they were already together.

She continued to walk and then she finally arrived at the tapestry. She looked around and saw a flash of black hair disappear behind the tapestry.

"James?" she called out. "Is that you?"

He walked out, his hands in his pockets, loping towards her with easy grace. "Yeah, it's me. What do you want?" He was smiling but Lily could tell he was trying to think of a reason to get her to stand under the mistletoe.

She wasn't moving from her spot. She said, "McGonagall wants to see you. She told me to come fetch you."

His grin dropped. "What?! I haven't done anything!"

She shrugged. "I don't know what it's about either. She just called me to find you. I found Remus and he said you'd be up here."

He narrowed his eyes. "McGonagall really wants to see me?"

She nodded, trying to look as innocent as possible. She willed herself to look exasperated. "Yes. Come on. I'll walk you there."

"I can walk by myself, you know that, right?" he said with an amused smile.

She gave him a flat look. "I know, but I just want to make sure you go straight to McGonagall. I don't want her to think I'm dodging out on my duties."

He shrugged. "Fair enough." They walked together and chatted easily about Quidditch. Lily then went to turn right but James asked, "Isn't McGonagall's office that way?" He gestured to the left.

She forgot about that part. She quickly covered it up with, "Oh, she's in the Great Hall helping set it up for Christmas dinner tomorrow. I was helping out but then she asked me to get you."

James looked suspicious but followed her anyway. She breathed a silent sigh of relief and then suddenly stopped. "What?" he asked.

"Did you hear something?" she said, gripping his arm.

He paused and then shook his head. "No I didn't see anything. What's going on?"

She looked up at him and said, "I'm not sorry for this."

"For what?" he asked but Lily didn't respond. She just pushed him against the wall viciously and then she saw Sirius getting thrown next to him.

"WHAT IS GOING ON?!" Sirius roared as he realised he was stuck pressed up against the wall.

"Lily?!" James said furiously.

Lily had burst into loud laughter and Mary, Remus and Peter stepped out from the broom closet. "You're under the mistletoe," Remus explained with a massive grin on his face.

Both Sirius and James' faces paled when they found this out. "What?!" Sirius hissed.

Peter laughed. "Mary and Lily were listening in when we were planning everything and when you guys went to bed they came up to us and gave us a better prank idea."

"Only it involved you two," Mary said pointing to James and Sirius, "not us two." She gestured to herself and Lily.

Lily looked like a cat that had just found the cream. "Next time you want to try and trick us into kissing you, look around first."

James looked horrified. "Does that mean we have to kiss each other to be free?" Sirius asked dumbly.

Lily nodded and Peter cracked up at the ugly expressions on his friends' faces. "No way," James said.

"Fine, be stuck then. We don't care," Mary said, shrugging.

James let out an angry breath and Sirius pleaded, "Can't we just kiss someone else separately?"

Lily thought about it. "You could. But you're not going to."

"How do you know that?" he retorted, sticking his chin up.

She narrowed her eyes. "Because I do. Now kiss."

Sirius said stubbornly, "No." Remus had never looked happier.

James turned to his best mate. "Padfoot, it's a kiss. It doesn't have to be a full on snog."

"I knew it!" Sirius cried. "You're in love with me, aren't you?!"

"No!" he said furiously. "I just want to be free from the mistletoe!"

Lily, Mary, Remus and Peter were all watching this exchange whilst laughing very hard. James rolled his eyes and muttered, "This is ridiculous." He then reached over and kissed Sirius on the lips, making Sirius swing his fist round and punch him square in the jaw.

James stumbled back and said thickly, "It worked! I can't believe you punched me, you git!"

"You kissed me!" Sirius said in horror, wiping his lips.

James put a hand on his jaw and shook his head at his best friend. "You're a thickhead. I'm going to be bruised now."

Sirius shrugged and whirled onto the four laughing sixth years. "I hate you all, just to let you know," he said bluntly.

"I don't care," Mary said, shrugging. Sirius made a face and then stormed away. Remus and Peter decided to follow him, calling out insults. Sirius did not turn around but kept his middle finger up towards them.

"I'm going to go and try to savour this memory for as long as possible," Mary said, "Lily, you coming?"

She shook her head. "I'll meet you later." She waved and then walked off. Lily walked towards James. "Are you okay?"

He winced. "Sirius hits hard. But yeah I'm fine. Nice prank by the way. I'm proud."

She laughed and he gave her a lopsided grin. She then summoned some ice. "Here, put this on your jaw. It'll reduce the swelling."

"Thanks," he said, grabbing the bag of ice from her. "I can't believe you pulled this off."

She rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you thought I'd fall for _your_ prank."

He shrugged. "It was worth a shot."

She laughed and looked at the ground, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "You know," she said lowly, "if you ever want to kiss me. All you need to do is ask."

James' jaw dropped. "W-what?"

She smiled and gave him a small wink. "I'll see you later." She turned around and walked quickly down the corridor. She looked behind her shoulder and saw him staring at her with a dumbfounded expression. She gave him a wave and turned the corner.

"Hey, Evans!" James' voice cried out. His voice cracked. She turned back around and saw him jogging towards her. She stopped walking and waited for him to catch up. He'd dropped the bag of ice but his jaw was still slightly red.

He caught up with her. He was panting but she didn't think he was panting from the running. He was always doing laps for Quidditch so she knew he was in good shape.

"Can I kiss you?" he said, breathing quickly.

She smiled coyly at him. She ran a hand through his hair and leant close to him. She pressed her lips close to his ear. "No," she whispered. She broke away from him and then ran away. She heard his loud laughter bouncing down the corridor.

"I'm going to get that kiss one day, Evans!" he called out from behind her.

"Dream on, Potter!" she called back, giving him a cheeky grin. He just shook his head and laughed at her antics. She was one of a kind.


End file.
